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Ashland County approves five‑year road‑maintenance contract with Town of Marengo
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Summary
The county highway department will assume full road maintenance for the Town of Marengo under a five‑year, time‑and‑materials contract with a baseline of $250,000 per year; the board approved the agreement after questions about cost risk, equipment valuation and state aids.
County Highway Director Matt presented a proposed five‑year contract for Ashland County to provide full road maintenance to the Town of Marengo beginning November 1, with a baseline annual contract value of $250,000 billed at time‑and‑materials. Matt said the county would bill labor, equipment and materials at standard rates and would offer the town’s current road employee an opportunity to join the county staff.
On equipment, Matt described a plan to evaluate town equipment at today's market value and to pay the town an hourly percentage of county equipment rates while the county uses that equipment; if the equipment is not fully paid for through those hourly payments during the contract it would be treated as rented, and if paid in full after the contract period the equipment would belong to the county.
Supervisors raised potential downside scenarios—severe winter costs could exhaust the contract balance and reduce summer maintenance—while staff said that any overrun above the $250,000 baseline would require town approval and that the county would not perform work that exceeded the contract without the town’s consent. The county said state GTA (gas tax) payments would still be received by the town and applied toward the agreement and that towns must spend minimum matching amounts to avoid reductions in GTA allocations.
A motion to approve the agreement was made, seconded and carried; the chair noted one abstention (Schultz). No specific dollar tally was recorded in the transcript beyond the $250,000 baseline and the described time‑and‑materials billing.
